Response to Catherine Madsen—God as Criterion of Jewish Liturgy

Abstract

Response to Catherine Madsen—God as Criterion of Jewish Liturgy Steven Kepnes Catherine Madsen has brought up important issues regarding a renaissance of Jewish liturgy in liberal Jewish communities of the twenty‐first century. Certainly, we are seeing great creativity in Jewish liturgy. There are many sparks flying and many new songs being sung. Yet Madsen seems to worry whether or not the sparks are strange fires and the new songs mere jingles of the moment rather than soulful melodies that arise from the struggle to contact God and that, once heard, cannot be forgotten. Madsen asks whether these liturgical innovations can have staying power since they seem to be invented anew with each liturgical occasion and the central criteria for the liturgy is the sincerity of the liturgist and the intensity of the liturgical experience. She juxtaposes these criteria with more traditional Jewish ones: “knowing before whom you stand” and doing the liturgical act to fulfill a mitzvah or divine command whether one fully understands it or not. By reminding us of the form and goals of Orthodox liturgy, Madsen is not calling for a return to Orthodoxy. I think that she truly shares the goals of contemporary liturgical renaissance in liberal Judaism that will make more space for women and others that the old rite excludes. She also knows that when liturgy is done only as rote with no passion, as we often see in Orthodoxy, it can be deadly boring and spiritually vacuous. What Madsen does seem to want in the contemporary renaissance in Jewish liturgy is more serious Jewish and liturgical thinking beforehand, more respect for the scope and ultimate religious goal of liturgical acts, and more continuity to the traditions of the past. In my terms, what I see Madsen doing is to bring theological concerns to liturgy. Therefore, what is central for me in Madsen’s critique of the frivolousness of much contemporary liberal Jewish liturgy are the words. Da lifnei mi atah omed, “know before whom you stand.” Knowing that you stand before the One God of Israel, before the Holy One and God of the Universe, clarifies what is central to all Jewish liturgy, be it the ritual breaking of bread by the individual or the complex choreography surrounding the taking out and reading the Torah in the synagogue. In liturgy, the liturgist stands before God. In liturgy, the liturgist praises, thanks, blesses, and asks forgiveness and mercy from God. Everything is done in Jewish liturgy for the sake of God and before God and God is the ultimate criteria and judge of the quality, sincerity, and intensions of liturgy. God, not mom and pop, not grandma and zeidi, not one’s friends, and not even the Rabbi, are the judges and bestowers of mercy that one seeks in Jewish liturgy. The contemporary Jewish liturgist, Cantor Tamar Havilio of Hebrew Union College Jerusalem, has summed up the central problem with much contemporary progressive Jewish liturgy nicely. She traces the problem back to the time when the Rabbi and Cantor placed themselves up front of the synagogue and turned around to face the congregation instead remaining in the middle of the congregation and praying with them toward the ark that represents God. When the Rabbi and Cantor pray toward the congregation, the symbolism is clear. Rabbi and Cantor are praying to the congregation and not God. Rabbi and Cantor are there to serve the congregation and not to lead the congregation to serve God. Rabbi and Cantor are there to entertain the congregation. And the synagogue service becomes a kind of a concert or lecture rather than a collective ritual of service of the heart to God. Since the Rabbi and Cantor represent God to the community, we could easily draw out a further implication. God, himself, must serve the congregation; the congregation does not serve God. Like the Rabbi, God is always chasing and searching for Jews; Jews need not search for Him. The synagogue service then becomes a kind of consumerist fare to be tried out and judged by how it meets certain vague spiritual and esthetic sensibilities of congregants. Jews, then, through their own wishes, desires, and money, judge the...